Insulin pump Alzheimer’s

See anything wrong with these two pictures?

In exhibit A, you’ll see the frickin’ tSlim is showing that there is 0.73 units of insulin “on board,” with a three hour and 34 minute active curve. So I must have taken SOME insulin today.

However, in exhibit B, you’ll see the pump has no memory of this. Or any other insulin today. Or any in the last week. Or in the last two weeks. Or even in the last month.

In the history section of the pump there is NOTHING. The delivery summary, bolus, basal, load, and BG history screens all say “no recent events” or “n/a.” The stupid pump has no recollection of anything that happened since I hooked her back up post-Snap. Apparently my pump can’t even remember being born.

WTF?

My first clue as to what happened was in the alarm history, where I have a “Data Error Alert number 4” Message. The Complete History menu adds one little tidbit. Right before that data error there’s another alarm that says the pump’s data log was corrupted.

Lovely. Just fucking lovely. 

Of course, in the back of my mind I can’t help but wonder what else might have been corrupted at the same time.

Checking the manual, on page 124, I’m told that this alarm happens when the pump  “encounters” a “condition” that “causes a potential loss of data.” Ya think? The manual helpfully suggests I make sure the data in my personal profile is “accurate” after getting such an alarm. You know, all those little things like how much insulin the pump is delivering into my body and such. Of course, when was the last time any of you wrote down your pump settings?

So I call Tandem.

And I work my way through the automated “press 1 if…” menus. And after a time I actually get a perfectly lovely human being who is one of us.

And after giving her my pump’s serial number and answering the typical 20-questions she tells me she’s never heard of such a thing and puts me on hold to check with the higher-ups.

Tandem has quite excellent planetarium-style hold music.

In the end I’m told that what’s happened is “quite odd,” and that my human’s supervisor had only heard of it happening one other time, “back in the early days.”

Uh... Wait a minute.

How long has this pump been around? Does something so new qualify for even having “early days?” To me early days is Wyatt Earp, the Wright Flyer, or maybe Sputnik. But not last year.

Anyway, of course, they want the pump back for analysis and will send me a replacement. Deja-Medtroinc. Long time readers will know what I'm talking about. Will I keep wearing this pump until the reinforcements show up? No. Not this time.

Truth be told, I was taking it off when the lightning struck. Driven insane by the number of “are you sure” screens between me and my insulin, I had decided to whip out my pen and my RapidCalc Ap again for a time. I was trying to look up my daily basal totals to calculate a Levemir shot for this evening, when the pump crapped out on me.

I don’t know if that’s a good omen or a bad omen--but I guess it’s good timing.